Hong Kong S. A. R. can be divided into three main regions—Hong Kong Island, about 18 km (11 mi) long and up to 8 km (5 mi) wide with an area of about 80 sq km (29 sq mi), and nearby islets; the mainland Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island, with an area of about 10 sq km (6 mi); and the New Territories, made up principally of a large area on the mainland and Lantau Island, making up the rest of the land area. The dependency is partly situated in the Zhu Jiang, or Pearl River, delta, and the Sham Chun River forms the border with China. Much of Hong Kong is hilly, the highest elevation being Tai Mo Shan in the New Territories at 957 m (3,140 ft) and the highest island peak Lantau Peak on Lantau Island at 934 m (3,064). Substantial areas of the low-lying terrain are made up of land reclaimed from the sea. Shortage of fresh water is a serious problem, with most of the supply being piped from mainland China.

Although within the Tropics, Hong Kong has a subtropical climate because of the south-western monsoon, a moist, warm, equatorial wind that brings a rainy season between May and August. The mean annual temperature is 22.2° C (72° F), with a range from 15° C (59° F) in February to 27.8° C (82° F) in July. Average annual precipitation is about 2,224 mm (88 in). Typhoons are frequent in summer and occasionally cause great destruction.

Only about 12 per cent of Hong Kong is forested, mostly with conifers, but small tropical and subtropical plants are abundant and diverse throughout the Special Administrative Region. Mangroves and swamp vegetation are also found. Hong Kong’s small amount of fertile soil is concentrated in the mainland portion of the New Territories, near Deep Bay. Few large wild animals inhabit the Region: monkeys are common, and there are small populations of foxes and civets. Birds, lizards, frogs, and small mammals are abundant.

The population of Hong Kong S. A. R. is about 97 per cent Chinese, with some Filipinos, British, Indians, Portuguese, and Americans; the future status of the non-Chinese minorities under the new government is uncertain. Around 90 per cent of the Chinese population is either native to Hong Kong or from the adjoining Guangdong Province of China; the remainder are predominantly from Shanghai, Taiwan, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu. Over 35,000 Vietnamese refugees, or “boat people”, confined in detention camps, suffered compulsory repatriation to Vietnam as the dependency was handed back to China in 1997. Hong Kong authorities closed down the last remaining Vietnamese refugee camp, the Pillar Point, in June 2000.

The majority of the Chinese population practises the eclectic combination of Buddhism, Daoism, and the philosophy of Confucianism usual in Chinese religion. There are also some 500,000 Christians, mostly Roman Catholics, and some 50,000 Muslims, plus small populations of Hindus, Jews, Sikhs, and other creeds. In the 1990s, Falun Gong, a mystical sect loosely associated with Buddhism, gained a considerable number of followers. It was banned by the Chinese government in 1999, but remains legal in Hong Kong S.A.R., although its activities are monitored.

Primary and secondary education is free and compulsory in Hong Kong to age 15. In 1995-1996 about 467,718 pupils attended primary schools, and some 459,845 students were enrolled in secondary and vocational schools. There were also over 20 institutes of higher education with some 137,740 students. The main institutions of higher education are the University of Hong Kong (1911), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (1963), and Hong Kong Polytechnic (1972).

Chinese culture dominates in Hong Kong, manifest in such traditional events as the Dragon Boat Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the Chinese New Year. Yet, as a port inhabited and visited by people of many nationalities, the Region is subject to diverse influences, especially that of the British, and is noted for its urban cosmopolitanism. Hong Kong has become an important source for modern Chinese popular culture worldwide, through its film and popular music industries as well as book and magazine publishing. Hong Kong is also an important centre of the traditional arts, through its Cantonese opera companies, its art dealerships, and its annual arts fair.

In the post-war period Hong Kong has grown to be one of the world’s major manufacturing, trade, and financial centres, expanding its traditional entrepôt role through considerable investment in industry. It also serves as a major channel for trade and investment in mainland China, and has been increasing its economic interests in the mainland as the economy there expands and with the reversion to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. The gross domestic product in 1994 was US$126.3 billion, or US$21,650 per capita (World Bank figures, 1992-1994 prices). The estimated budget for the fiscal year 1994-1995 included income of US$19 billion and expenditure of US$14.1 billion, yielding a budget surplus of US$4.9 billion.

Partly because of the large influx of skilled immigrants from China after the Communist takeover in 1949, Hong Kong has developed important manufacturing industries. In the mid-1990s these contributed around 8.7 per cent of the gross domestic product, and exported around 80 per cent of their output. The principal products include textiles, clothing, footwear, electronic and electrical equipment, ships, fabricated metal, chemicals, rubber goods, precision instruments, timepieces, printed materials, toys, and processed food.

Hong Kong is important as a port primarily because its excellent natural harbour is the only satisfactory seaport between Shanghai and the Indochinese peninsula (see Indochina). Hong Kong, which levies few customs duties, handles a great volume of cargo and serves as an important link in China’s foreign trade. In 1995 Hong Kong’s imports (c.i.f. value) were valued at US$177 billion and its exports and re-exports at US$195 billion. The principal imports include foodstuffs, industrial raw materials, machinery and transport equipment, telecommunications equipment, and chemicals. Major exports are clothing, textiles, timepieces, toys, electrical machinery, and computer and other electronic components. Hong Kong’s principal trade partners are the rest of China, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, the United States, Singapore, South Korea, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Hong Kong is also an important source of investment for the developing Chinese economy.

Hong Kong had about 1,717 km (1,067 mi) of roads in 1995. With more than 450,000 motor vehicles, Hong Kong has one of the highest vehicle densities in the world. The Region is connected by railway with China and has a subway system of about 43 km (27 mi). Ferries and hydrofoils link various parts of Hong Kong, which is also served by a major international airport near Kowloon. A second airport, Chep Lak Kok international, situated on reclaimed land off Lantau Island, opened in 1998, despite arguments between Britain and China over its financing.

Hong Kong in the mid-1990s had around 3.8 million radios and 1.75 million televisions. In addition to government broadcasting, there are also several commercial stations, including the pan-Asian satellite broadcasting company Star TV. In 1995 Hong Kong had around 4.1 million telephones. The world’s first full interactive multimedia network, including shopping and information services, was launched by Hongkong Telecom, the dependency’s telecommunications utility, in 1996. Hong Kong has almost 60 registered newspapers in English and Chinese; leading dailies include the South China Morning Post (English) and the Oriental Daily News (Chinese). Press freedom under the new Chinese regime has been a particular concern, with many journals practising “self-censorship”.

Until July 1997, as a dependency of the United Kingdom, Hong Kong was governed with guidance from London, in the same manner as other British-controlled territories worldwide. After the signing of the first Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984, democratic representation was gradually extended through Hong Kong. Its political structure remained in place until the handover of sovereignty to mainland China in 1997. At this point, China installed its own governing apparatus, in accordance with Hong Kong’s new status as a Special Administrative Region of China.

Paramount military and civil authority under British rule was vested in an appointed British governor-general representing the Crown. The governor presided over and was assisted by the 13-member Executive Council, three of whom were ex-officio members and the rest appointed by the governor. The supreme executive authority after the handover was vested in a chief executive, chosen by a 400-strong Selection Committee, governing with an Executive Council appointed by the Executive.

Hong Kong’s legislative organ prior to July 1997 was the 60-member Legislative Council (Legco), 39 of whom were, by 1995, directly elected (20 by public poll, 10 by electoral colleges, and 9 by functional constituencies representing occupational groups), and 21 indirectly elected. This replaced the system in force until 1995 in which 18 members were appointed by the governor. The mainland Chinese government, antipathetic towards this elected legislature, declared its intention in March 1996 to scrap the Legislative Council and replace it with a 60-member assembly chosen by China’s Selection Committee. This body was nominated in December 1996 and began meeting in Shenzhen. However, China promised open elections to a new Legislative Council in 1998.

Hong Kong law is mostly derived from British law, though by 1997 most important legislation was replaced by that derived from the Legislative Council. The highest tribunal of the dependency is the Supreme Court, divided into the Court of Appeal and the High Court. Lower courts include district courts, magistrates’ courts, a coroner’s court, a juvenile court, and sundry tribunals. The structure of the legal system after the handover to Chinese rule in 1997 was one of the most contentious points of Sino-British negotiations, with China drawing up 25 new laws and articles in January 1997 which were condemned by Britain as injurious to human rights.

Political parties sprang up in Hong Kong after the introduction of direct elections. The first political party to be formed, in 1990, was the United Democrats of Hong Kong, followed by other pro-democracy parties. The future of these groupings under Chinese rule is uncertain. The parties closest to the Communist government of China are the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong and the Liberal Party.

Britain first used the island as a naval base during the Opium Wars with China. By the Treaty of Nanking (modern Nanjing) in 1842, which ended the First Opium War, Hong Kong itself was ceded to the British in perpetuity, and began its expansion as a strategic port. After a second conflict in 1860, Great Britain acquired Kowloon and Stonecutters Island and in 1898 obtained the New Territories under a 99-year lease. Hong Kong became a refuge for political exiles from the mainland of China following the establishment of the Chinese Republic in 1912. Ensuing Chinese nationalism was marked by antagonism towards all foreign countries, and a Chinese boycott from 1925 to 1927 denied British shipping access to the ports of southern China, hindering Hong Kong’s trade.

When Japan seized Dongbei in 1932 and open war broke out in 1937, China turned to Great Britain and other European countries for its military supplies, and diplomatic relations between the British in Hong Kong and the Chinese became friendlier. Throughout 1937 hundreds of thousands of Chinese, displaced by the Japanese invasion of their country, sought refuge in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Great Britain began strengthening the colony’s defences.

The outbreak of World War II in September 1939 further dislocated the economic life of Hong Kong, already seriously affected by the Sino-Japanese conflict. The threat of Japanese aggression also grew steadily. Japanese aircraft bombed Kowloon on December 8, 1941, and ground forces dislodged British troops from Kowloon and the New Territories; the British surrendered on December 25. Having occupied Hong Kong, the Japanese converted it into a military bastion and supply station for their projected campaigns in East Asia. Their operations were largely hampered, however, by United States submarines and bombers. The British reoccupied Hong Kong following the unconditional surrender of Japan on August 14, 1945.

Hong Kong swiftly regained its status as a major East Asian trade centre. Numerous economic dislocations resulted, however, from the Nationalist-Communist civil war in China. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese took refuge in the colony before and after the Communist victory in 1949. Following the US-imposed ban on trade with Communist China in 1950 during the Korean War, the commercial activity of Hong Kong declined.

The colony had to use its own resources to develop new industries. Thousands of newly arrived Chinese from the mainland provided labour and money for the rapid growth of light manufacturing industry during the 1950s and 1960s. In this period, also, the liberal tax policies of the Hong Kong government attracted foreign investment. The resultant economic boom transformed Hong Kong into one of the wealthiest and most productive areas in Asia. However, the low wages underpinning this early boom stimulated discontent. Riots raged throughout the spring and summer of 1967, fanned by sympathizers with the Cultural Revolution in mainland China, and temporarily threatened the political stability of the colony. The government responded with laws on working conditions, more public housing, and investment in public works, and by 1970 Hong Kong was stable once more.

In the mid-1970s the flow of refugees from the mainland increased. Relations, however, remained friendly, and commercial ties with the Chinese prospered with the initiation in the early 1980s of a number of joint economic ventures. Economic growth continued, with Hong Kong now established as one of the “tiger” economies of Asia. Gross domestic product was estimated to have increased at an average of 7 per cent per year between 1980 and 1991. In the early 1980s refugees from Vietnam, the “boat people”, began to arrive in numbers, threatening to increase Hong Kong’s overcrowding.

With the British lease on the New Territories due to expire in 1997, talks between China and Great Britain over Hong Kong’s future began in 1982. A legally binding agreement reached between the countries in September 1984 and signed in Beijing in December, the Sino-British Joint Declaration, stipulated that all Hong Kong would revert to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. The territory, which would at that time become known as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, would be allowed to maintain its own legal, social, and economic systems for at least another 50 years, and civil liberties would be guaranteed. China would assume responsibility for foreign affairs and defence. A committee was convened in Beijing, including representatives from Hong Kong, to draft the Basic Law (constitution) for Hong Kong after 1997. Great Britain increased limits on the nationality status of Hong Kong citizens to remove right of abode in Britain after 1997. In 1985 the Legislative Council (Legco) was expanded and indirect elections to it on a very limited franchise were held for the first time.

The first drafts of the Hong Kong Basic Law were published in 1988, and criticized for their lack of democratic safeguards. In 1989 work on the Basic Law was suspended during the Tiananmen Square protest; the massacre that followed caused revulsion and mass demonstrations in Hong Kong. The United Kingdom refused to consider renegotiating the Joint Declaration, but introduced a limited right of residence to apply chiefly to officials and business leaders, to “maintain confidence” in Hong Kong prior to 1997. In October 1989 the governor unveiled plans for a massive project for a new airport off Lantau Island, also intended to boost confidence in the colony. The final Basic Law passed by the National People’s Congress in Beijing in April 1990 opened the way for some seats in Legco to be elected directly prior to 1997 (neighbouring Macau first introduced such direct elections in 1976). Hong Kong’s first formal political party, the liberal United Democrats of Hong Kong, was formed in April 1990 under Martin Chu-Ming Lee. Emigration from Hong Kong or the acquisition of foreign residence rights, especially in Canada, reached an average level of 60,000 people per year in the early 1990s.

Relations between China and the United Kingdom over Hong Kong deteriorated during 1991, due to disputes over financing of the airport project and Chinese demands to be consulted. The United Democrats and their allies won 17 of the 18 seats on the Legislative Assembly contested in the September 1991 elections, though on a relatively low turnout. In May 1992 the Hong Kong government began the forcible repatriation of all Vietnamese refugees classed as “economic migrants”. In July 1992 Chris Patten was appointed Governor of Hong Kong, and in October he presented plans for extension of direct democracy through broadening of functional constituencies within the Legco franchise. China denounced the proposals as contravening all previous agreements and in November suspended talks on the airport project, threatening to cancel all contracts related to it in 1997. The reform proposals were passed by the Executive Council in February 1993, but their presentation to Legco was suspended to allow negotiations with China on the subject. In July, China established a government-in-waiting for Hong Kong in Beijing. Negotiations reopened, but after protracted Chinese foot-dragging, the reforms were passed by the Legco in the first half of 1994, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18, establishing new functional constituencies with 2.5 million voters, replacing corporate voting by individual voting in other functional constituencies, and establishing council seats indirectly elected by the directly elected local councils. China announced that the reforms would be dismantled and the elected councils replaced after 1997. Agreement between the United Kingdom and China on funding the new airport was finally reached in November 1994. Democratic Party candidates and their allies soundly defeated candidates friendly to the mainland government in elections to the local councils in March 1995. In June agreement was finally reached between the UK and China on the form of the court of final appeal, to operate in the Hong Kong legal system after 1997.

Pro-democracy candidates under Martin Chu-Ming Lee won convincingly in the first-ever open elections to the Hong Kong Legislative Council in September 1995, despite China’s promises to ignore the result. After China’s Preparatory Committee, appointed by Beijing to oversee the handover of sovereignty, formally decided in March 1996 to dissolve the Legislative Council after the reversion of sovereignty, British Prime Minister John Major promised entry without visas to the United Kingdom for Hong Kong residents; Lee’s Democrats continued to demand greater British pressure on China over issues of democracy.

In July 1996 five pro-democracy Legco members were refused entry to China. In August, China opened nominations for its 400-member Selection Committee, set up to choose the post-handover Chief Executive of Hong Kong and the assembly designed to replace the Legislative Council; Martin Lee and other democrats refused to participate. In November the 400 Hong Kong citizens chosen by China for its Selection Committee began voting on the new Chief Executive, and in December 1996 they elected Tung Chee-hwa, a Hong Kong shipping magnate, also selecting a 60-member provisional legislature to replace Legco. Tung selected his Executive Council in January 1997, and soon showed himself pro-Chinese, backing China’s announcement that month of plans to curb human rights laws in Hong Kong. In February, China’s appointed Preparatory Committee voted to recommend the repeal of Hong Kong’s Bill of Rights and other human rights laws. However, the death of Deng Xiaoping later that month raised hopes that a new Chinese leadership might be more flexible over human rights issues after the handover. In April 1997 China’s Provisional Legislative Council announced plans to curb civil liberties, including restrictions on demonstrations and on political bodies’ links outside China. In the same month, Martin Chu-ming Lee visited the United States, where President Bill Clinton assured him that America would defend human rights in Hong Kong. Britain ceremonially handed back sovereignty over Hong Kong to China on June 30, 1997.

As promised, China dissolved the elected Legislative Council on its resumption of sovereignty; however, elections for a new council were announced, and pro-democracy demonstrators held brief demonstrations before leaving office. The Chinese-appointed Provisional Legislative Council held office until April 1998. New elections in April and May 1998 returned a majority of pro-democracy candidates in the directly elected seats for the new Legislative Council. The effects of the continuing economic crisis in Asia forced government stimulus packages in the summer of 1998 and a controversial intervention in the stock market in August. In February 1999 the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, at Beijing's insistence, qualified a ruling on immigration law which would have given it the authority to interpret the Hong Kong Basic Law autonomously.

Kaohsiung (also Kaosiung or Kaohiung), city in southern Taiwan, capital of Kaohsiung County, on Taiwan Strait. It is a fishing centre and the southern port of Taiwan. Fish, rice, sugar, pineapples, and bananas are exported. The chief industries are oil refining, shipbuilding, fish and fruit processing and canning, aluminium production, rice and sugar milling, and iron casting. The port, which was once under Dutch occupation, developed after 1858, and its heavy industry expanded under Japanese rule from 1895 to 1945. The city was known as Takow (Japanese, Taku) until 1920 and as Takao by the Japanese from 1920 to 1945. Population: urban agglomeration, 1.40 million (1996); municipality, 1,462,302 (1999 estimate).

Sendai, city in Japan, capital of Miyagi Prefecture on eastern Honshu. The city is important as a trading centre for salt and fish. Principal industries include the manufacture of beer, silk, pottery, and lacquerware. Sendai is the seat of Tohoku University (1907) and Tohoku Gakuin University. Also of interest in the city are the ruined 17th-century castle on Aoba Hill, the Rinnoji horticultural park, and the Osaki Hachiman shrine, designated a national treasure. Matsushima, an island that is one of the most celebrated beauty spots in Japan, is nearby. Population (1990) 918,398.

The city was founded in 1594 on six islands in the Ota River delta. Hiroshima grew rapidly as a commercial city, and after 1868 it was developed as a military base. On August 6, 1945, during World War II, the first atomic bomb was dropped on the city. The Supreme Allied Headquarters reported that 129,558 people were killed, injured, or missing and a further 176,987 made homeless by the bombing. (In 1940 the population of Hiroshima had been 343,698.) The blast flattened more than 10 sq km (4 sq mi), about 60 per cent of the city. Every August 6 since 1947, thousands participate in multidenominational services in the Peace Memorial Park built on the site where the bomb exploded. In 1949 the Japanese dedicated Hiroshima as an international shrine of peace. After the war the city was largely rebuilt, and commercial activity gradually resumed. Population 1,106,922 (2000).

The Andaman Sea, separated from the Bay of Bengal by the Andaman-Nicobar Ridge, is part of the Indian Ocean. Thailand's Andaman coast extends for 870 km from the Surin Islands on the northern border with Burma to Tarutao National Park on the southern border with Malaysia. Hundreds of islands are accessible to small craft from Phuket, many of them uninhabited, many of them forested and fringed with spectacular coral reefs. You often won't find even a footprint on the beach.

Two distinctively different varieties of island are found in the Andaman Sea, each of them scenically striking in its own way. Low-relief granite intrusions, including the Surin and Similan islands, run in series roughly parallel to the more dramatic limestone islands. Island groups such as Koh Phi Phi have been shaped by a variety of forces from a massive limestone platform that was deposited 350 million to 450 million years ago.

Tin. This mineral has been mined on Phuket from time immemorial, however the demand for tin has declined. Tin dredging in offshore waters has slowed in the past few years, moreover, by zoning regulations designed to help protect the coral reefs and beaches of the west coast. Old tin-mine workings on land, meanwhile, are being converted from unsightly scars in the landscape to beautiful resort hotel developments, yacht marinas, golf courses and bungee-jumping facilities.

Manchester is an important commercial centre, with banking, insurance, and the leisure industry playing a significant role. The city is also a major retailing centre, and the Arndale Centre was one of the first purpose-built shopping complexes in Britain. The city was long known as the leading cotton textile manufacturing city in Great Britain. This was largely due to its site at the confluence of the rivers Irk, Medlock, and Irwell. They provided abundant water-power in the early days of manufacturing. Nowadays, there is greater industrial diversification, with engineering, chemicals, clothing, food processing, and textiles contributing to the economy. Each year, 15 million travellers use Manchester International Airport, situated 16 km (10 mi) south of the city (it is Britain's third busiest airport after Heathrow and Gatwick); the Metrolink Light Rail System was opened in 1992.

Educational institutions in the city include the large Victoria University of Manchester (1903), the Royal Northern College of Music (1923), and Manchester Metropolitan University (1992). A noted cultural centre, Manchester is the home of the extensive John Rylands Library collection; the renowned Hallé Orchestra (1858); the Whitworth Art Gallery; and the Manchester City Art Galleries (known for its Pre-Raphaelites collection and designed by Sir Charles Barry in the 1820s), which incorporate museums of archaeology and natural history, as well as of science and technology. It is also home to a flourishing musical culture that since the end of the 1970s have included New Order, Take That, Oasis, The Smiths, and The Stone Roses. Manchester United, who play at Old Trafford, are England's most successful football club in recent years; Manchester City, who play at Maine Road, Rusholme, are also one of the most enthusiastically supported football clubs. Manchester is the site for the 17th Commonwealth Games in 2002. The city is also the seat of a bishopric of the Anglican Church, and its cathedral dates from the 15th century. The essayist Thomas De Quincey was born in Manchester, as was the painter L. S. Lowry.

The Roman outpost of Mancunium was established here in the 1st century. The medieval town was probably founded in the 10th century. Manchester was chartered in 1301, at which time it was developing a wool industry. It was a thriving commercial town by the 17th century, when the manufacture of cotton textiles was of growing importance. With the introduction of steam power in cotton milling in 1783, Manchester began a dramatic period of growth. It was connected by rail with the seaport of Liverpool in 1830.

Manchester was the scene of the Peterloo Massacre (August 1819), when 11 demonstrators, out of a crowd of 60,000 petitioning for repeal of the Corn Laws and for parliamentary reform, were killed in St Peter's Field by a cavalry charge on the orders of the city authorities. Throughout the 19th century, the citizens of Manchester were notably active in the liberal-reform movement in politics and in the development of facilities for public education. The city also became a publishing centre; the Liberal daily newspaper, The Guardian, was founded there in 1821 as the Manchester Guardian.

Declining textile production since the mid-19th century has been partially offset by the introduction of new industries, of which tourism plays a significant part. The city suffered damage from German bombing during World War II and later underwent extensive urban rebuilding. On June 15, 1996, the city was the scene of a huge Irish Republican Army bomb that devastated much of the central shopping area. Manchester’s Millennium Quarter includes Exchange Square, opened in 1999 to commemorate the explosion and its effects; a new City Park; the Cathedral Visitors Centre; and Urbis, a state-of-the-art exhibition centre, to be completed in 2001. The Lowry—the National Landmark Millennium Projects for the Arts— opened in 2000.

Dubai or Dubayy, city in the north-east United Arab Emirates, capital of the state of Dubai, on Dubai Creek, on the Persian Gulf. Dubai is on the west side of the creek; the eastern part of the town is known as Dayrah (Deira). Dubai was the residence of the British political agent for the former Trucial States from 1954 until 1971. Known as the Venice of the Gulf, Dubai is the chief port and commercial centre of the United Arab Emirates. Oil wells in the area have largely displaced the traditional occupations of pearl diving, fishing, and camel breeding. Until 1833 the town was tributary to the state of Abu Dhabi. Dubai is sometimes spelled Debai or Dibai. Population 674,100 (1995 estimate).

Once a leading contributor to the local economy, agriculture now accounts for less than 2 per cent of the employed population. Manufacturing and services are now the major economic activities, with the service sector employing nearly 3 out of every 4 working people. The main domestic airport, Sungshan, is located north-east of T’aipei’s old central business district. To help lessen the city’s acute traffic congestion, the railway in T’aipei was partially constructed underground. Other transport facilities include the Mass Rapid Transit System (opened in the early 1990s).

T’aipei offers both traditional and modern cultural activities and institutions. There are many museums, libraries, and universities. Most notable is the National Palace Museum containing major art collections moved from Beijing, Nanjing, and other locations when the Kuomintang (KMT) left mainland China in 1949. In addition the Taiwan Provincial Museum and the National Museum of History contain art collections dating back more than 3,000 years.

Among the other chief places of interest in the city are Buddhist shrines; Hwa Kang Museum, which has displays of folk and modern Chinese art; the National Taiwan Science Hall, which includes a planetarium; and the National Taiwan Arts Centre, a complex including art galleries and theatres. T’aipei is also the site of the National Central Library, Fu-jen Catholic University (1963), National Ghengchi University (1927), National Taiwan University (1928), National Taiwan Normal University (1946), Soochow University (1900), and a number of specialized colleges.

Chinese from Fujian province in southern China began settling in Taiwan in the 15th century. By 1820 T’aipei’s original population, the aboriginal Ping-pu, were pushed out of the T’aipei area. In 1809 Mengchia was made the official seat of the T’aipei County, an administrative area of Fujian province on the Chinese mainland, and in 1875 T’aipei became a separate prefecture. By the 1890s a new settlement at Tataochen replaced Mengchia as the centre of T’aipei. In 1894 T’aipei was set as the capital of the recently established province of Taiwan. The following year, Japan seized Taiwan after their defeat of China in the First Sino-Japanese War. T’aipei remained the capital of the Japanese colony of Taiwan and the city grew rapidly under Japanese colonial administration. Chinese control of the islands resumed in 1945, and in 1949 the Kuomintang government fled to Taiwan and proclaimed T’aipei its temporary national capital, a status it retains today. Population 2,639,939 (1999 estimate).

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